- Officials in massive ticket racketing
- How syndicate lure passengers onboard without valid tickets
- Management suspends workers who collected cash from passengers
BY OUR REPORTER
Investigation by The Point has revealed massive fraud in the ticketing operation of the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
It was gathered that the internal sabotage of ticket racketeering is actually getting worse and has affected the dwindling revenue of the NRC.
Investigation revealed that some staff members of the NRC have built a high wall of racketeering around ticket sales.
In an alarming incident that has raised serious concerns about the integrity of the NRC system, passengers traveling from Ibadan to Lagos on October 2, 2023, found themselves unwittingly embroiled in a ticket scam orchestrated by the employees of NRC.
A lady, who documented her ordeal on Wednesday in a viral video, recounted how she and her friends fell victim to a well-organized scheme at the Obafemi Awolowo Train Station in Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to her, the incident unfolded at approximately 3:40 PM as the group of five friends prepared to board the train after a weekend getaway.
According to her, a uniformed NRC official had approached them, inquiring about their tickets.
She said when informed that they were on their way to purchase tickets, the official reassured them and instructed them to follow him.
Trusting the official due to his uniform and identification as an NRC staff member, the lady said that they followed him.
However, she recounted that instead of guiding them to the ticket counter as expected, the official led them through security checks and directly onto the train.
The lady said she immediately expressed concern about their lack of tickets, but that the official brushed it off, promising to resolve the issue.
The lady and her friends said they were then handed over to another uniformed staff member and directed them to Coach 7.
To her astonishment, she said she discovered that every passenger on Coach 7 had been lured in the same manner, without valid tickets.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, she said she attempted to seek clarification from fellow passengers, only to find that even new arrivals had miraculously acquired tickets on the spot.
She narrated that her suspicions deepened, and she confronted the official who had initially led them onto the train, who irrationally claimed they couldn’t sit together if they went to purchase tickets at the counter.
She narrated further that as the journey commenced, passengers were coerced into paying substantial sums in cash, with her paying N18, 000 for her group of five.
She lamented that more than 60 passengers in Coach 7 were extorted, each paying N3, 600 despite not possessing valid tickets.
“This revelation has cast a shadow of doubt over the integrity of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and highlights the urgent need for an investigation into this alarming ticket scam.
“The NRC must address this misconduct, restore passenger trust, and ensure the safety and transparency of railway services for all Nigerians,” she lamented.
NRC suspends officials
However, following the exposure and persistent media probe, the NRC said on Wednesday night that it had suspended some of its workers who appeared in the viral video, collecting cash from passengers onboard a Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge train.
In a statement signed on Wednesday by the Corporations Deputy Director, Public Relations, Yakub Mahmood, the Corporation condemned the actions of the workers, stating that it is a flagrant disobedience of laid down rules guiding the operations of the NRC.
According to the statement, “Following a viral video that has been trending on various social media platforms, vividly showing Railway workers negotiating with our esteemed passengers onboard Lagos-Ibadan Train Service (LITS) to pay without obtaining official boarding tickets, the general public is invited to note that the NRC seriously condemns such acts of misconduct which is a flagrant disobedience to laid down rules and utter betrayal of the confidence reposed on such workers, especially at this time that the Federal Government is making all efforts to revitalizing and modernizing the Corporation.
“This misconduct is regrettable and unacceptable as it negates the tenets and norms of the Corporation. The Corporation has therefore placed the identified erring officers on immediate suspension pending the outcome of the in-depth investigation already ongoing by the Management Committee set up to look into the issue.
“Our esteemed passengers and the general public are assured that this unwholesome attitude and image dent to the Corporation by any staff will not be tolerated nor treated with any levity. Accordingly, disciplinary proceedings in line with the extant rules citing relevant sections of the NRC General Rules and Public Service Rules (PSR) will definitely be visited on all those found wanting or connected to this irresponsible act.
“The Management of the NRC wishes to use this medium to enjoin all our intending passengers on LITS and other train corridors to insist and demand for boarding tickets after making appropriate payment at the designated stations or book online appropriately.
“Please note that the electronic ticketing system is being deployed and will be available on both the Lagos-Ibadan Train Service and the Warri-Itakpe Train Service (WITS) by the end of October 2023.”
Though the Federal Government through the NRC was said to have generated about N5 billion revenue from the Lagos-Ibadan train services in 2022, it was gathered that the number could have been higher if the corporation had blocked all leakages, especially fraudulent ticket racketeering.
It was revealed that the coaches in the train, which plies the Lagos-Ibadan rail line have a passenger capacity of about 900/1000 passengers per trip.
Data gathered from NRC showed that from January 1 to August 10, 2022, the Lagos-Ibadan train operated six trips daily, generating a total of N18 million daily.
Further findings showed that for 221 days, the NRC recorded a total of N3.978 billion on the Lagos-Ibadan train services.
It was learnt that internal sabotage of tickets’ racketeering has affected the dwindling revenue of the NRC.
The standard gauge in operation now was as a result of the 2012 $1.5 billion contract awarded to China Civil Engineering Construction Company for the construction of Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Earlier earmarked for completion by 2016, but it was not until June 10, 2021, that former President Muhammadu Buhari finally commissioned the project.
Investigation by The Point revealed that the fraud in the ticketing operation is really getting worse.
A passenger, who identified himself as Soji, and recently travelled from Ibadan to Lagos, said, “When we got to Asipa, I saw different tickets flying around. Some of the tickets were numbered, while others did not have numbers.
“There is the issue of ticket hoarding. Officials of the railway corporation are hoarding these tickets. They will not sell the tickets until the highest bidders come.”
He said that the ticketing fraud is so pervasive that curbing it would require more commitment on the part of the authorities.
He therefore, called for a more advanced ticketing operation by introducing online ticketing platforms like the airlines, suggesting working towards a computerised system. According to him, “this has the capacity to reduce the manipulation going on with the present ticketing system.”
In 2021, the then Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed that the country had started a N900 million e-ticketing project for the NRC.
The project specifically targeted the Abuja-Kaduna railway line.
Also in 2021, the NRC said that it would select operators for e-ticketing at the railway stations. This development was reported after the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission granted NRC licenses.
Two years after this reported commitment, the e-ticketing platforms are yet to be introduced.
On June 16, 2023, the NRC had acknowledged that its lack of a payment platform led to money losses.
The Managing Director of the NRC, Fidet Okhiria, was quoted as saying that the corporation was losing revenue to a lack of payment platforms.
A Dataphyte report had also noted that although passengers increased by 18 percent, the revenue of the NRC dropped by N1.2 billion.
The Lagos-Ibadan railway line was constructed with a loan of $1.267 billion from the China Eximbank with a maturity period of 20 years and a seven-year grace period.
According to the loan documents, the loan is expected to have been entirely liquidated by 2037.
